The Relief of Cold Metal
by Five-0Forever
Summary: Neal has a plan to save his partner. There is a possibility of pre-slash or slash. I tried to make it neutral.


**It's been a while since I wrote for White Collar. It's good to be back. Anyway, this is how I imagine season 5. It most likely won't happen but this is how I imagine Neal reacting to that phone call with Diana.**

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**Neal**

I could feel every agent's gaze on my back as I started yelling in Callaway's office. I knew they were freaked out by it. This was the only time any of them had ever seen me lose my careful facade. The only one that ever saw me lose my temper, I mean really lose it, was Peter.

But he wasn't here to calm me down and that was the problem. He wasn't here and it was my fault. Which was why I had started yelling in the first place. "How could you arrest Peter? He's innocent!"

"Caffrey, he was found standing over Senator Pratt's body, holding the gun that killed him. There was too much evidence against Agent Burke to suggest it was someone else."

I used my improvisation skills and said the first thing that came to mind. "It's my fault. I killed Pratt. I shot him and Peter took the gun from me. I ran before you got there." It wasn't my best lie but I depended on this one to work the most.

"You weren't on that floor. I had agents covering everything."

"You should know by now that I don't need a door to leave a place. I saw your agents and avoided them. It wasn't that hard."

"You're admitting to killing Senator Pratt and obstruction of justice by running away from the FBI?"

"Yes. I killed him. I left the gun in Peter's hands and fled the crime scene."

"Okay then. Neal Caffrey, you are under arrest for murder and obstruction of justice." I let out a small sigh of relief as cold metal circled my wrists. I didn't want to go back to prison but it was better than knowing Peter was behind bars because of me.

I never thought I would be standing here, saying I killed a man just so I could save the agent that put me in prison. I never imagined that I would need to save him, even after everything I had put him through. It scared me to realize that Peter wasn't as invincible as I had begun to imagine.

After his kidnapping, his wife's kidnapping, and the constant danger surrounding me, he had survived it all. He had been okay. Until my 'father' came back to New York. Trust James to find a way to ruin not only my childhood, but my adult life as well. And poor Elizabeth. She must hate me. Unfortunately for both of us, it's impossible for her to hate me more than I hate myself right now.

As Callaway walked me to the door of the White Collar Division, the agents that were staring at me earlier stood when I walked past. Including Diana and Jones. They knew what I was doing. It was written all over their faces. They knew I was lying to get Peter's name cleared. I was glad they knew. If anyone could save me from what I had just done, other than Peter of course, it would be Diana and Jones. God knows they're determined enough.

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**Peter**

"Why did you do that, Neal?"

"I had to."

"What do you mean you had to?"

"I couldn't let you go to prison for something my father did. I had to do something, anything."

Why was Neal always so hard-headed? "But you didn't have to lie for me."

"Yes I did. My father did this. If he won't fix it, I have to."

"No, Neal. You are not your father's son. Not in spirit. You would never do the things he did." He laughed condescendingly. "What?"

"I had this conversation with him. He saw one of my forgeries and asked me why I don't have any original pieces."

"Why don't you?"

"To be an artist, you have to know who you are. I don't have any original pieces because I don't know who I am. Maybe I'm just like him. How do you know I'm not? How could you possibly know that, Peter?"

"I know you." I wasn't lying when I told him that. I did know him. Better than anyone else. Sometimes, like right now, I felt like I knew him better than he knew himself. "I'll figure this out, okay? We can fix this."

"I don't think you can, Peter."

I chose to ignore that last statement. "El and June send their love. Mozzie is being paranoid again and refuses to have any contact with you unless it's through me." He smiled at that. "Diana and Jones promised to visit and they are helping me with everything. We can fix this, Neal. Just be patient."

The guard led Neal away and I left to go home; where El, June, Mozzie, Diana, and Jones were waiting for me to bring the files from the case so we could get started on saving our consultant.

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**I hope you enjoyed this. It's going to be a really long wait for this fall. Luckily we have each other. : )**

**~Five-0Forever**


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